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A Scranton principal who successfully challenged her firing is seeking to add the president of the district’s teachers union as a defendant to a lawsuit she filed against the district and six school board members.

Gwendolyn Damiano alleges Rosemary Boland, president of the Scranton Federation of Teachers, has “virtual control” over the school board and used that influence to wage a campaign to get Damiano fired as principal at Robert Morris Elementary School.

Damiano’s attorney, Brett Datto of Philadelphia, also claims the district retaliated against Damiano, who won her job back last month, by assigning her to John Adams Elementary School, which she claims is the worst-performing school in the district.

The allegations are contained in a motion filed by Datto that seeks court permission to amend a federal lawsuit filed last year by attorney Joseph O’Brien. That suit alleged the district and board members violated Damiano’s due process rights by repeatedly delaying a disciplinary hearing regarding her performance.

The hearing was eventually held, with the board voting in November to fire her. That decision was overturned on July 10 by an official with the office of the state secretary of education, who ordered the district to reinstate Damiano with back pay.

Datto, who assumed the suit from O’Brien, wants to add a claim that Damiano’s First Amendment right to free speech was violated.

The proposed amended complaint alleges Boland had a vendetta against Damiano and that the school district helped her retaliate against the principal by giving her unusual access to the disciplinary hearings. Boland, among other things, helped prepare teachers who testified against Damiano, the suit states.

Boland on Tuesday denied wrongdoing, saying any actions she took were to protect the interests of union members.

She and Marc Gelman, attorney for the teacher’s union, questioned the veracity of Damiano’s amended complaint, which they said contains two factual errors. O’Brien, who no longer represents Damanio, also questioned the suit’s claim regarding a sexual harassment issue.

The motion to amend, filed last week, initially claimed that Boland wrote a letter to a relative of school board member Robert Casey Jr. that threatened to “ruin” him politically if he did not vote to appeal the education department’s ruling that reinstated Damiano.

The letter, which is quoted in the motion to amend, references the teachers union and warns that Casey “must do the right thing and take a stand — or we will not forget!”

Gelman said the letter was sent to Casey’s mother by an anonymous source who did not sign the document. The complaint also identifies the person who received the letter as the wife of Casey. Casey is single.

Casey acknowledged Monday that his mother received an anonymous letter. He said he was unfazed by the threat to ruin him politically.

“I would not succumb to political pressure. It doesn’t matter who sent it to me,” he said.

Gelman on Monday sent a letter to Datto that criticized him for acting in a “reckless manner without a modicum of care” for including the Casey allegations. The letter demands he delete that section of the motion to amend or face potential legal action by Boland.

“While you may have personally formed an unsubstantiated opinion that Boland has authored the letter, your representation to the court that she has, in fact, done so is a material misrepresentation of fact,” Gelman wrote.

Contacted Tuesday, Datto said he agreed to withdraw the allegation, but he has not dropped plans to add Boland as a defendant. He declined to comment on why he agreed to withdraw the claim or say if he has any proof Boland was the letter’s author.

Boland vehemently denied she wrote the letter.

“I do not write anonymous letters,” she said. “That’s just not my personality type. I think it’s a cowardly thing to do.”

There is also a dispute over a claim in the suit that O’Brien was present at a meeting at which Damiano was allegedly asked by district officials to fabricate a sexual harassment complaint against former superintendent William King. Attempts to reach King were unsuccessful.

O’Brien acknowledged there was a general discussion about whether Damiano was ever sexually harassed or knew anyone else who had been harassed, but no one ever suggested she fabricate allegations against King.

Datto said Damiano was not sexually harassed by anyone. When the district officials asked her about that, she took it to mean they wanted her to make up allegations.

“The district chose to bring this up as an issue. They wanted to know who may or may not have harassed her,” he said. “My client took that as they wanted her to make up those allegations.”

A federal judge will review the motion to amend and issue a ruling at a later date.

tbesecker@timesshamrock.com

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